The Oregon Telecommunications Coordinating Council (ORTCC Report, pdf), “studies alternative approaches to providing coordinated statewide, regional and local telecommunication services, including providing services to unserved or underserved areas of the state” (list archive). They hope to coordinate both public and private investments in telecommunications to benefit all Oregonians.

Right now, different agencies (Forestry, Transportation, State Patrol and Corrections), have separate, state-wide networks. That has led to incompatibility and duplication. The $500 million upgrade will fix that.

OWIN grew out of Homeland Security’s “Safecom” program to develop interoperable city, county, state and federal public safety communications using P-25 radios. The federal 700 MHz Integrated Wireless Network was initially tested in western Washington State, according to Sparling (pdf), an engineering firm who has a white paper on Northwest radio interoperability. Northrup Gruman and Verizon won the $10B national IWN contract.

But what about 700 MHz broadband?

A P-25 radio (for $3,500) does voice (and 9Kbps data). A Mobile WiMAX device (for one tenth the cost), will do voice and 900Kbps data. WiMAX can support many more users per tower. At 700 MHz, Mobile WiMAX will go faster and further than cellular data and is expected to be considerably cheaper. With instant access to maps, photos and live video. With push to talk voice. With interoperability and security.

Commercial networks WILL buy 700MHz spectrum next year. Then they will build a parallel system. That’s a given.

Firefighters may put HSDPA/EVDO wireless routers inside their vehicles because they’ll want broadband for their laptops. P-25 radios can’t handle more than 10kbps — they’re just good for voice. By contrast, 700 MHz Mobile WiMAX can deliver maps and pictures directly to handhelds and laptops — anywhere.

Wouldn’t it make sense to work together? Sharing facilities — where it makes sense — could provide redundant backup and universal service. The Feds (and Oregon’s public service agencies) will be stuck with slow, expensive P-25 radio network for decades. Taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. A dual-use service might provide “talk channels” for police and broadband for everyone. Organizations like Cyren Call and Frontline Communications hope to build such dual-use networks — at little taxpayer expense.

Mobile WiMAX starts this year (at 2.5GHz) and may move to rural areas in 2-3 years (at 700Mhz).
Here’s the deal:

Right now most police and fire radios use the 800 MHz band. The US government transfered television channels (70-83) to public service radios some 20 years ago.

Now they want more channels. The government has now set aside television channels 52-69 (the 700 MHz band) for that purpose.

The 700 MHz band consists of 18, 6MHz channels. Right now police and fire will get 4 channels (2 up and 2 down). They are lobbying for 30 MHz more (essentially five more, 6 Mhz channels). Then public service would essentially “own” tv channels 60-69.

The lower 700 MHz band has eight tv channels (Ch 52-Ch 59). This is a commercial band. Three of these channels have already been auctioned (Ch 55 which is Qualcomm’s mobile tv service MediaFLO) and Ch 54 & 59, bought by Aloha Partners which also plans mobile tv service. That leaves five, 6 MHz channels to be auctioned next year.

One group that has a big interest in 700 MHz are the feds. They want 2-way radios that include crypto and are interoperable using the Project 25 standard. But those radios cost $3,500. The Feds plan a $10 Billion nationwide network using P-25 radios. The Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) system will use the internet to interconnect the thousands of 700 Mhz radio towers in every community in the nation.

Of the four, 6 MHZ tv channels devoted to public safety, almost two, 6 MHz channles are reserved and unused. The Feds want to squeeze four “broadband wireless” channels in the unused channels. They would each be 1.25 MHz wide — essentially EVDO cellular channels. The Feds are now cutting checks to the states to develop interoperabily using 700 MHZ (Project 25 radios), and they want that broadband space for their $10B IWN system.

A proposal from Cyren Call Communications asks the FCC to keep its 24 MHz of spectrum for public safety and gain another 30 MHz of spectrum currently scheduled to be auctioned for commercial purposes. An assigned “trustee” would manage the shared band for both pubic safety AND commercial users. It’s one proposal to manage the limited resource on 700 MHz.

I think there’s the possibility that the State of Oregon could offer ALL citizens access to broadband. Sharing facilities to deliver 700 MHz wireless broadband for both commercial and public service would lower costs. It might be managed like Cyren Call. Public service agencies get additional commercial services and redundant backhaul. Consumers get lower costs — and broadband wireless everywhere.

The State of Oregon (via OSP, DOF and DOT) has telecommunication infrasture thoughout the state. It’s now being upgraded to 700 MHz at a cost of some $500 million. If the State partnered with Sprint or Clearwire, for example, commercial Mobile WiMAX operators might trade their use of government-owned towers for broadband services to the public. Everyone wins. Because 700 Mhz, can deliver 10-20 mile range, it could deliver faster, cheaper, better services for everyone

Wireless Priority Service (WPS), gives public service users priority on busy cell sites. It might be used for commercial 700 MHz voice/data service, too.

The High Tech DTV Coalition wrote a letter to Capitol Hill opposing the use of more channels on the high 700 MHz band for “public safety”. The letter was signed by the CTIA cellular trade group as well as Qualcomm, Verizon Wireless, Aloha Partners, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Intel, Texas Instruments and others.

RUS funding for rural broadband, which is taken out of your phone bill each month, is broadly perceived as broken, however. That’s because the multi-billion dollar Universal Service Fund is subsidizing multiple providers — who mostly serve nearby urban areas. An auction has been discussed to reduce duplication. But that would likely benefit Verizon and entrench their wireless dominance and control. Verizon has the money to buy 700 MHZ frequencies nationwide and may get free RUS money to subsidize their operation. Verizon indicates in public statements that they will keep 700 MHz a “walled garden”, limiting hardware and software choices.

But dual-use of 700 MHz (either the infrastructure or the band) might save everyone a pile of money — perhaps hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars — and could provide more and better services. It would be cheaper to build and provide redundancy. It might even provide free access in some areas.

A grid of 700 MHz towers might be placed every 40 miles or so. Fill-in might be provided by unlicensed 700 MHz radios (using the evolving 802.22 standard). Maybe it could be ready by 2010 with the right incentives. Carl Stevenson, chairman of 802.22 says, “Using higher frequencies would require six to eight times as many base stations for equivalent coverage. Nominal base station coverage radius would be 30 to 40 kilometers” [18-25 miles].

TerreStar is one solution for a national interoperable communications system. It doesn’t take a telecommunications genius to understand that what you need in a major emergency is a satphone. Terrestar/MSV will have the smallest, cheapest and most flexible since it can use repeaters.

Providing first responders with a Treo Smartphone embedded with cellular/satphone connectivity and push-to-talk is apparently not a technical problem — it’s political. Cellcos don’t want to give up their terrestrial backhaul or cooperate with satphone providers who got their repeater frequencies “free”.